In the 2nd century BC, a Roman senator named Cato would conclude every single speech he gave by saying, “Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse deledam.” Often abbreviated as “Carthago delenda est” (Carthage must be destroyed), the full sentence can be translated as, “Furthermore, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed.”
Cato was pushing for Rome to declare a Third Punic War on Carthage, eliminating them as a competitor for Roman dominion of the western Mediterranean once and for all. Cato got what he wanted. Carthage was destroyed.
Regardless of whether you agree with Cato’s thirst for war or not, there’s little question that his political tactics were possibly the most effective in history: How many other political slogans are still known more than two thousand years later?
Which is why every political figure and commentator appearing on TV or making a public statement should conclude by saying, “Furthermore, I believe that Donald Trump should resign.”
Trump delenda est.
Yesterday Trump suggested on live television that people should think about injecting household disinfectants into their bodies.
In a sane world, the question would no longer be whether or not we should remove the demonstrably mentally incompetent person serving as President of the United States, it would be HOW. But we don’t appear to live in a sane world: The news media refuses to directly confront and frankly report the incontrovertible fact of Trump’s incompetence.
So it behooves literally everyone of sound mind who possesses even the smallest iota of responsibility to force the issue into the public sphere and keep it there.
If this became a constant refrain that we heard day after day, the endless churn of the news cycle would be forced to engage with it. And the initial framing of the story would inevitably (because our news media is systemically broken) be about the political tactics of this and the horse race of this and the question of how long they can keep it up… But every one of those stories would nevertheless be pushing the simple idea — Trump is mentally incompetent, Trump should resign, Trump should be out office, Trump needs to be out of office — into the public consciousness.
And at some point that will turn from a discussion of whether or not he should to a discussion of when it will finally happen.
Furthermore, I believe that Donald Trump should resign.
